Dacre
See Time, that flies, and spreads his hasty wing!See Life, how swift it runs the race of years,And on its weary shoulders death appears!Now all is life and all is spring:Think on the winter and the darker dayWhen the soul, naked and alone,Must prove the dubious step, the still unknown,Yet ever beaten way.And through this fatal valeWould you be wafted with some gentle gale?Put off that eager strife and fierce disdain,Clouds that involve our life's serene,And storms that ruffle all the scene;Your precious hours, misspent in others' pain,On nobler deeds, worthy yourselves, bestow;Whether with hand or wit you raiseSome monument of peaceful praise,Some happy labour of fair love:'Tis all of heaven that you can find below,And opens into all above.
Words in this poem
- dubious a.
- Doubtful or not settled in opinion; being in doubt; wavering or fluctuating; undetermined. [L. dubius, dubiosus, fr. duo two. See Two, and cf. Doubt.]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dacre is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, the various hands translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Petrarch, Dacre, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/dacre-4.html, id L14644.
Form and metre
Dacre is 20 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACDDCEEFGGFHIIJHJ. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBACDDCEEFGGFHIIJHJ wingA · yearsB · appearsB · springA · dayC · aloneD · unknownD · wayC · valeE · galeE · disdainF · sereneG · sceneG · painF · bestowH · raiseI · praiseI · loveJ · belowH · aboveJ
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| See Time, that flies, and spreads his hasty wing! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| See Life, how swift it runs the race of years, | 10 | ·········· |
| And on its weary shoulders death appears! | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Now all is life and all is spring: | 8 | ········ |
| Think on the winter and the darker day | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| When the soul, naked and alone, | 9 | ···/˘˘·˘/ |
| Must prove the dubious step, the still unknown, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Yet ever beaten way. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And through this fatal vale | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Would you be wafted with some gentle gale? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Put off that eager strife and fierce disdain, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Clouds that involve our life's serene, | 9 | ··˘//˘·˘/ |
| And storms that ruffle all the scene; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Your precious hours, misspent in others' pain, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/·/˘· |
| On nobler deeds, worthy yourselves, bestow; | 10 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘/ |
| Whether with hand or wit you raise | 8 | ········ |
| Some monument of peaceful praise, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Some happy labour of fair love: | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| 'Tis all of heaven that you can find below, | 10 | ···/······ |
| And opens into all above. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.